Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 2.

There are lots of ways to harvest emails.

Maybe the one I like the most is the quiz or survey. I worked on a super-successful one for a golf company. It was one way of providing valuable information.

There are many other ways to provide information in return for a valid email. I started a birthday promotion for one client, a small restaurant in the world’s worst restaurant location. They now have 3,500 email addresses, a valuable resource. Other ways to harvest emails using information range from video tutorials to webinar access and even contests. And, of course, you must keep the emails of people who have become customers.

Many companies base their whole traffic strategy around harvesting emails. For example, they might advertise on Facebook and offer some free information.

You want high quality emails. What does that mean? You want emails from people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. That’s one reason it’s important to work with a direct copywriter throughout the entire process. This includes coming up with the information and then selling it. I’ve written thousands of opt-in pages, also known as “squeeze pages.” The copy on the squeeze page will help you get these high-quality emails.

Once you have your emails in the database, it’s time to think about your overall email strategy. I’ve seen many different approaches.

• Pedal-to-the-metal every day emails pounding away at the database, always selling something.
• More occasional emails with 5-6 instructional or educational emails for every email that sells.
• Emails that are half information and half selling.

The bigger companies segment their database based on buying patterns and other factors. There’s no right way and no wrong way to organize email strategy. You have to know your market and look at the data that comes back.

Should emails be short or long?

Again, there’s no right or wrong answer. I’ve seen emails from serious direct marketers that are just a few lines of copy. I’ve seen others that are thousands of words and essentially take the place of a sales page.

In the next installment, I’ll talk about writing subject lines that get your emails opened.

Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 1.

“Nobody looks at emails anymore,” is something I’m certain you’ve heard a great deal over the years.

But ...

“The emails you send are the ONLY emails I read,” reads an email from a customer of one of my clients.

“Email marketing is a waste of time,” says one marketing expert.

“Email marketing is alive and well and becoming more important,” says another marketing expert during a marketing conference.

I don’t look at email marketing numbers when it comes to world volume. That’s a lot like trying to determine the precise amount of snowflakes in a large avalanche or the number of raindrops in a 2-hour thunderstorm. However, this direct response copywriter remains an email believer. It’s still a powerful and cost-effective way to reach current and prospective customers and clients.

So I’d like to start a series about successful email marketing. I’ve had a lot of success in this space. I’ve also worked with some the world’s top marketers and they know a thing or two about successful email marketing.

After reading this series, you’ll have some thoughts about how to improve your email marketing and your direct response copywriting.

Let’s start with the challenges email marketers face.

Deliverability … getting emails into the right inboxes. Open rates … motivating people to open your emails. Third-party lists … yes or no? Relevant content that converts.

The biggest challenge right now, by far, is the sheer volume of scam emails. No, that’s not a typo. I didn’t mean to write spam. The email marketing world is replete with pure fraud. These emails include those delightful missives from people claiming they will put $35 million in my bank account tomorrow thanks to a prince who works for the United Nations. Then there's the person who is ‘phishing’ for information and then the scuzzbucket selling something they will never deliver.

You call is spam. I call it fraud.

“But,” you’re saying, “we’re legit.” “So what?” I say. People are automatically putting you in the same bracket at the fraudsters. And it’s only getting worse and it’s not going away. I wonder who organizes this stuff.

Thankfully, this presents an opportunity for legitimate companies who use some fundamental direct marketing and direct response copywriting principles.

Where do I start?

Let’s start with 3rd party lists. If you’re selling outdoor furniture, you can get an email database of people who may be in the market for outdoor furniture.

This approach may or may not work. But here’s the biggest problem: compliance. You can get into trouble. The company that markets this list might tell you it’s compliant but how do you really know? Plus … is that really how you want to market your company initially? The copy and the offer might be brilliant but it doesn’t matter: you’ve got a major problem with this approach. Many of these emails have been harvested illegally and this method essentially breaks the law, at least in the United States.

How can you harvest emails legitimately?

I worked with a company that successfully harvested 2 million opt-in emails. They bought traffic to motivate people to visit a web page. They used a questionnaire based opt-in and this was very effective. Then they presented the new member of the community with a product almost immediately … to defray the acquisition/traffic costs.

You’ll want to include a direct response copywriter in this process. You can also legitimately harvest emails by providing some type of free information in return for an email address. This requires some direct response copywriting to “sell” the freebie. This opt-in method then requires follow-up emails, sometimes called an autoresponder series.

In the next blog, I’ll talk about other ways to gather emails to build your list.

Landing Page Copywriter Critiques Superb Landing Page Part 3

In a couple of previous blogs, I wrote about the first half of this awesome landing page from Creative Direct Marketing Group and their client, Brainy Baby.

Let’s dive down further toward the end.

We’re getting to the business end of the landing page where they're trying to persuade the reader to buy.

The reader is here because they didn’t buy in the part of the landing page above the fold. So, well below the fold, the persuasion volume is at 11.

Note that the testimonial sidebar continues for almost the entire length of the page. You just can’t have enough testimonials. And the photos are well-selected.

We’ve got three panes to go before the end, let’s take a look at what’s going on. It’s all good.

Two windows from the bottom of the page, we're getting the FREE stuff, including a couple of bonus items.

Click on the image for full size.

Then we have the double guarantee and a photo of everything you get...and it's a TON.

Click on the image for full size

The order form at the bottom of the page is crisp and the order form isn't an order form, it's the ONLINE SAVINGS CERTIFICATE.

Awesome. Note also that the little bit of white space at the bottom of the sidebar has been filled with a guarantee certificate.

Click on the image for full size

It's not easy putting together a landing page like this. Everyone has to be at the top of their game.

You need:

• An awesome client
• Traffic (in this case from TV)
• A direct response copywriter who knows how to write a landing page
• A graphic designer who understands direct marketing
• The development team
• An account exec to put all the pieces together

Let's remember that this page came from nothing.

Perhaps the people at CDMG will at least give us a range for the conversion. 

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.